Hunters need to separate themselves from gun nuts

Chicago Sun Times ^ | 2-17-03 | DALE BOWMAN

[SJackson]

"About the time that Daddy left to fight the big war/I saw my first pistol in the general store/In the general store, when I was thirteen/Thought it was the finest thing I ever had seen/So I asked if I could have one someday when I grew up/Mama dropped a dozen eggs, she really blew up/She really blew up and I didn't understand/Mama said the pistol is the Devil's right hand.''

Steve Earle's ''The Devil's Right Hand''

Ihunt. It's the most intense and rewarding thing I do in the outdoors.

To hunt, I own guns.

They are my most valued possessions.

When I was 13, Dad gave me the family .22 rifle as my most cherished Christmas gift. When I turned 18, my 12-gauge shotgun and my deer rifle were my first important life purchases.

The only thing I asked Dad to bequeath me in his will is an ancient, open-bore, single-shot, 12-gauge shotgun my Grandpa Bowman gave him as his first gun as a boy.

Guns come with meanings for me, come with stories and histories.

So I watch with more than passing interest when an anti-gun person such as Mayor Daley steps into the political arena with gun legislation.

The latest foray came Thursday.

My first thought was, "Oh, God, not again.''

Then I picked through the highlights.

As a hunter and human being, I agreed with almost all of them.

As hunters, we must learn to separate ourselves from the gun nuts, those who would oppose every firearm restriction. Otherwise, we'll be lumped in the crackpot pile.

*A ban on military-style, semi-automatic assault weapons. I absolutely agree. It should have been done years ago. The problem for hunters is the definition of assault rifles; otherwise, it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Restrict handgun purchases to one per person per month. For my money, you could ban handguns completely. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Gun fingerprinting. I have no problem with that other than it is another governmental intrusion into our lives. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Lengthening the waiting period for taking possession of a handgun from three days to 10. Hey, make it a month, a year, 10 years. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Require annual background checks of those who hold Firearm Owners Identification Cards. I think that will be a logistical nightmare and should not be enacted for that reason. Otherwise, check all you want. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Increase the cost of a FOID card. It annoys me. It will cost me. But it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Mandate background checks of people who buy firearms at gun shows. Absolutely. That should have been in place years ago. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*State licensing of gun dealers and a state database of gun information. Go ahead. I think it will be a logistical nightmare; otherwise, it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Increased penalty for secret compartments in vehicles for weapons. Throw the book at them. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

Daley's proposals make sense. But then, I am a hunter who owns guns, not a gun nut. Guns don't mean more than life to me.

Dale Bowman can be reached at outdoordb@aol.com.

"Bowman's Outdoor Line'' is heard on "Outdoors with Mike Norris'' (3-4 p.m. Thursdays, 1280-AM).

[RamingtonStall]

ez,

You have hit the nail on the head! The original article for this thread is totally SELFISH and not worthy of the FREEDOM which the Writer is taking for granted as he merrily throws it away by trusting the Sarah Brady Crew.

The reason my wife and I got our Hunting License was as a starting point to get the training in safe handling of firearms which we wanted for our Self Protection and for our protection from Government, as per the second ammendment.

We then went on to additional courses in Pistol and assorted other firearms for self protection, obtaining FL and PA CCW licenses even though they should not be required according to the Second Ammendment as well as the State Constitution for the State of Ohio.

Ohio is still one of the ramaining "16 Rights Impaired" States, but there have recently been several court cases which ruled that Ohio's ban on CCW is unconstitutional. The cases are now headed to the Ohio Supreme Court and with the newly elected Strict Constructionist Supreme Court Justices, we should have an interesting year in Ohio.

Bottom Line: Hunting is a minor sub-set of the reasons for needing firearms and firearms training in a free society. If we fail to reclaim our Constitutional Rights NOW, we will have failed ourselves and our children in our efforts to preserve the USA as a Free Country.

Refer to http://www.ohioccw.org/
and http://www.jpfo.org/
and http://www.keepandbeararms.com/

for the real reasons to have and to promote Firearms Ownership if we want to stop the future Hitlers and Hillary's!

Looking Up! ([: ^ )

RamS

[ez]

You get it. Spread the word.

[wardaddy]

LOL...but he might make a worthy wall mount.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"sci-fi weapons"

Remember, we built 'em, we know how to take them out.

JDAMS aren't so useful if GPS doesn't exist.

Communications don't work so well without those comm sats.

It is not easy to execute air missions on the interior of the US day in and day out if the only place you can fly from is outside the US.

All the ammo dumps in the world mean nothing if the opposition knows their location and how to destroy them.

"Hidden" bunkers aren't so effective to hide in when the very people who built, operated, and maintained them are the very people you just pissed off.

There is a lot to be learned about how the South lost the Civil War, concerning their lack of industry to produce weapons.

No government official would ever dare stick her head outside or see the light of day; there are just too many deer rifles.

A government can't function if its money supply is cut off. Without the ability to levy taxes, their word of value is no good world wide. We know where the gold is.

Get the picture? No government can upset its people if the very people who built and operated that government know how to destroy it.

I've worked rather closely with those "sci-fi" weapons. Very closely. I know very well that the people who built them are very patriotic. No government can enslave them without serious consequences. Remember, the smart people who built them do not exist in the government but in the private sector. Piss them off, and the government has no one to build more or develop new ones.

Besides, no “sci-fi” weapon can ever pacify a city. That takes soldiers on the ground, and no government soldier would ever be safe.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Let's try this: Hunters Free Speech Advocates> need to separate themselves from gun nuts Free Speech Nuts

As Free Speech Advocates, we must learn to separate ourselves from the Free Speech Nuts, those who would oppose every Free Speech restriction. Otherwise, we'll be lumped in the crackpot pile.

*Restrict free speech to one per person per month. For my money, you could ban handguns speech I disagree with completely. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting. favorite type of speech

*Gun Random fingerprinting. I have no problem with that other than it is another governmental intrusion into our lives. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting. engage in my particular brand of speech

*Lengthening the waiting period for taking possession of a handgun engaging in certain types of free speech from three days to 10. Hey, make it a month, a year, 10 years. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting. my particular brand of speech

*Require annual background checks of those who hold Firearm Owners Identification Cards. insist on having certain Constitutional rights respected I think that will be a logistical nightmare and should not be enacted for that reason. Otherwise, check all you want. It in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting.

*Mandate background checks of people who buy firearms at gun shows speak at public gatherings. Absolutely. That should have been in place years ago. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting. particular brand of speech

*State licensing of gun dealers and a state database of gun information journalists. Go ahead. I think it will be a logistical nightmare; otherwise, it in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting. engage in my particular brand of speech

*Increased penalty for secret compartments in vehicles for weapons unauthorized published materials. Throw the book at them. That in no way affects my right to own a shotgun or rifle for hunting. engage in my particular brand of speech

This author is full of it. He spends a good portion of his article building himself up as "one of us" (wink, wink), them goes on to contradict every notion that free people hold dear. Like the Constitution.

Hey, I could write an article painting Stalin and Hitler as pro-Second Amendment. Seriously.

It would be quite similar to the above article. They weren't against guns. Not at all.

What they were against is certain people having them, and certain people having control of them.

That doesn't sound too bad, does it?

[spunkets]

I don't know about that. Wall hangings should be for things of beauty. I wouldn't let the dogs chew on this. Just something for the compost pile maybe.

[wardaddy]

You've convinced me....let's just use dogs on him.....why waste ammo?

[Ohioan]

The writer's qualifying everything in terms of hunting sounds almost pathological. It was not just--or primarily--the pot-hunter that the Founding Fathers were concerned for, when they sought to have an armed population:

The Right To Keep & Bear Arms.

So this fellow considers those of us who identify with George Washington as "crackpots." In his worse nightmare, he would try to debate some of us on that.

William Flax

[GraniteStateConservative]

The minors inside the compound for starters.

[GraniteStateConservative]

You'll be branded terrorists and you'll get caught and executed. The IRA did the same thing once and they got caught, too. They had the advantage of living in areas that were sympathetic to their cause.

Guns won't ever be totally outlawed in the U.S. You may see liberal wet dreams like required gun registrations and such-- but those would be tolerated by the general public and the public would rat armed resistance out at every opportunity if the cause was gun registrations.

There's a difference between supporting something like "general RTKBA" and having people allow militia groups to terrorize people by sniping out of cars-- even if those people are just politicians. The mass public would not support that and would actively act against you.

You couldn't keep your activities secret enough to pull it off.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I didn't say that a serious resistance couldn't accomplish anything. I was just saying that if the issue is required gun registration, banning of "non-hunting" arms, etc., there won't be enough people and supporters to pull it off.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"there won't be enough people and supporters to pull it off."

I'd say that there is. There are 80 million gun owners, at least, and most of them are pissed off already. 1 percent, just 1%, is 800,000. That is plenty to do the job.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"The IRA did the same thing once and they got caught, too"

No offense meant to the IRA, but what sissies! They half-assed their efforts and never waged war, only terror.

They attempted to get their way through the ballot box, not the ammo box.

[mvpel]

It was a "hostage crisis" only to the extent that children staying with their parents can be considered "hostages."

[Dec31,1999]

This is a very good RTKBA thread. Could you "ping list" it? Thanks in advance.

[SJackson]

The old divide and conquer thang at work here folks.......More of the 1st amendment freedoms trying to kill the one thing that keeps presstitutes in business.....the 2nd amendment.

Yes, and it's being done effectively. This is a slick piece of propaganda when placed in front of many once a year hunters and casual gunowners.

[SJackson]

Good letters, thanks. Hope I didn't miss anyone.

[SJackson]

Well, I hate to be the one to break the bad news, BUT Daley is not your Problem ANYMORE! It is Rod "the Second Amendment HATER" Blagojevich! Hang on to your seat, You ain't seen Nothin YET!!

You’re probably right about what’s coming, though I think it’s possible Governor Rod has national ambitions that might temper him a bit.

Of course, Governor Rod and AG Lisa (if there’s a less qualified attorney general in America that Lisa Madigan, please let me know) work for Daley.

[mhking]

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